NEW DELHI: A unique campaign in Bihar ahead of Assembly elections is reaching out to elected representatives of local bodies such as mukhiyas, sarpanches as well as MLAs to urge them to demand that political parties give tickets to at least 50% of women candidates.
Campaign volunteers, both women and men, of a citizen's collective called Shakti have been busy calling elected women members of Bihar Panchayats, Nyay Panchayats and women MLAs to talk to them about the benefits of a greater role for women in politics. While women sarpanches and mukhiyas have to endorse the campaign by sending their selfies along with posters, women MLAs are asked to express their support by promising to take up the demand within their political parties.
Though the State pioneered 50% reservation in local bodies in 2006, there are only 11% women in Bihar Assembly - 28 women of the total 243 seats. While there are over 2 lakh elected women in local bodies since 2006, not even 1% of them are able to advance in their political career to get tickets and fight for Assembly polls. Political parties in Bihar have been giving only 9% tickets to women, fielding barely a handful of women each, in every election cycle, the NGO said in a press statement.
Volunteers including farmers, male social workers, working women, students, civil society activists, minority and Dalit groups in Bihar, among others, made phone calls to various women leaders. 28 MLAs from the JDU, RJD and BJP were contacted, of which 15 women MLAs have agreed that they will push for 50% tickets to be given to women. Of the remaining, nine were unreachable, one was unwell, and three were either not interested or refused to comment.
In an earlier round of the campaign, volunteers also sent petitions to different political parties appealing that parties give at least half of the party tickets to women candidates.
“This is a landmark effort for women's political rights with a simultaneous outreach to both local bodies and state level elected women representatives. These 50 odd Mukhiyas, Sarpanches represent the voices of an average of 6,000 voters each, a total of 3 lakh voters across these 50 Mukhiyas and Sarpanches. Further, the 15 female MLAs represent the voices of 2.3 lakh voters each, adding up to 34 lakh voters. The aggregate "yay" from all parties, represents 37 lakh voters of Bihar, demanding a rightful 50% female candidates in the upcoming polls! We hope that the parties will discuss this and ensure that these elections are genuinely representative and gender balanced," Tara Krishnaswamy, co-founder of Shakti said,
She adds that women candidates have a much stronger "success rate" contrary to the misconception widely held that while women candidates may fight, they don't win. In the previous State elections in 2015, all 10 women who fought on a RJD ticket won, 9 of the 10 who fought on a JDU ticket were elected and four out of five in case of Congress bagged a seat in the Assembly.